Red-crowned Habia

Taxobox
name = Red-crowned Habia
status = LC
status_system = iucn3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
familia = Cardinalidae (see text)
genus = "Habia"
species = "H. rubica"
binomial = "Habia rubica"
binomial_authority = (Vieillot, 1817)

The Red-crowned Habia, "Habia rubica", is a medium-sized passerine bird from tropical America. The genus "Habia" was long placed with the tanagers (Thraupidae) and thus "H. rubica" is often still called Red-crowned Ant-tanager, but it is actually closer to the cardinals (Cardinalidae).

Red-crowned Habias are 18 cm long and weigh 34 g (male) or 31 g (female). Adult males are dull reddish brown with a brighter red throat and breast. The black-bordered scarlet crown stripe is raised when the bird is excited. The female is yellowish brown, with a yellow throat and yellow-buff crown stripe.

The Red-crowned Habia is a shy but noisy bird. Its call is a rattle followed by a musical "pee-pee-pee".

This bird is a resident breeder from Mexico south to Paraguay and northern Argentina, and on Trinidad. It preferentially occurs in the middle stratum of the forest as well as undergrowth rich in ferns, shrubs and herbs [de Lima Favaro & dos Anjos (2005)] . These birds are found in pairs or family groups. They eat mainly arthropods, but berries are also taken. In Central America and Trinidad they frequently attend army ant columns, and in the lowland forests of southeastern Brazil they are a nuclear species of understory mixed-species feeding flocks. They also follow coatimundis ("Nasua nasua") on their feeding excursions, namely in the dry season [de Mello Beisiegel (2007)] . In both cases, they are commensales, snatching invertebrate prey startled by the ants or coatimundis.

The shallow cup nest is usually built in a sapling or tree fern near a stream, and the normal clutch is two brown-blotched white eggs. The female incubates the eggs for 13 days to hatching, with about ten days more before the chicks fledge.

Footnotes

References

*|year=2004|id=53802|title=Habia rubica|downloaded=12 May 2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
* (2005): Microhabitat de "Habia rubica" (Vieillot) e "Trichothraupis melanops" (Vieillot) (Aves, Emberizidae, Thraupinae), em uma floresta atlântica do sul do Brasil [Microhabitat of "Habia rubica" (Vieillot) and "Trichothraupis melanops" (Vieillot) (Aves, Emberizidae, Thraupinae) in an Atlantic Forest, Southern Brazil] . [Portugese with English abstract] "Revista Brasileira de Zoologia" 22(1): 213–217. [http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbzool/v22n1/a26v22n1.pdf PDF fulltext]
* (2007): Foraging Association between Coatis ("Nasua nasua") and Birds of the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. "Biotropica" 39(2): 283–285. doi|10.1111/j.1744-7429.2006.00255.x (HTML abstract)
* (1991): "A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago" (2nd edition). Comstock Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y.. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2
* (2003): "Birds of Venezuela". Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5